Weekend Pass

I waited all day to get called out by my instructors about the bathroom incident but they did not.  That sort of made things worse as I just wanted to get it all over with but instead it just loomed over my head.

That night in our room it was worse than ever.  Before the bathroom incident, I had one roommate that wasn't for me but she also wasn't against me.  She tried to remain neutral, all the while the others clearly hated me.  I lost my last ally in my room and I knew that was going to make getting through the course ever harder, if in fact I wasn't soon to be kicked out for my infraction of the rules pertaining the door by the bathroom.

I guess I wasn't cut out to be a soldier and in fact, those words ran across my mind like a digital bank billboard complete with time and weather, "1700 hours, 45 degrees, you were not cut out to be a soldier. . . . 1701 hours, 45 degrees, you were not cut out to be a soldier . . .".  And it wasn't the first time either, during any military training operation I second guessed my soldiering skills on a daily --no actually, minute-by-minute basis.

And other things were going on too.  In the back of my mind just nagging at me was my upcoming Platoon Sergeant duties.  That pretty much ate away at me every second of the day.

We had been so isloated at school, not able to leave or call that the upcoming weekend pass was going to be a much welcomed break.  Before school started, Newsome and I agreed he'd pick me up the first Saturday we were able to get a pass.  I don't remember the details as to what we arranged but I do remember it was set in my mind, that we had firmly made plans for him to pick me up.

Well, come Saturday morning we of course first had to "GI" (clean) the barracks before we were released.  More time consuming than that, the instructors had to come around and inspect your areas before you could leave -- so once we got finished we had to wait to get inspected.  When I was finally released, it was later than I had anticipated but I assumed Newsome would have waited for me.  I got my personal things together and headed out.  I didn't see him anywhere at first but I figured he probably got tired of waiting and he'd be back.

So I just stood outside the school, watching all of my fellow PLDC soldiers leaving and some even offered me a ride, "No," I'd say to them, "I'm just waiting on my ride."

And waiting I did.  In fact, over an hour of it.  I finally determined Newsome wasn't coming and I don't remember how I got back to my barracks but I have some slight recolleciton of taking a bus.  I wasn't agnry as much as disappointed.  I needed to see him.  He was my Army "go to" man that helped me make sense off all that Army stuff.  When I couldn't handle the heat, he seemed to make things all better for me.  I needed that pep talk and advice and besides, I just really wanted to see him.

But I didn't get to.  Instead I spent the rest of the weekend in my barracks with roommates that LIKED me and I regaled them with my PLDC tales and told them I'd be Platoon Sergeant and, "WHAT?? YOU???  Platoon Sergeant?", was their reaction.  And I also gave them a message to relay to SSG Newsome, should they happen to see him, that I had waited over an hour for him and he never showed and I joked, "And he better be in the hospital again because that's the only excuse I'm going to accept."

PLDC -Losing My Last "Friend"

Remember the Woman's restroom at the end of hallway we discovered? Remember the females got in trouble because someone had been sneaking out?
Well . . . .

One day I walk down the hallway to the bathroom and there was another female (not one of my roommates) standing at the door. She looked at me sort-of sad like and nervously asked me to do her a favor. She went on to explain she left an important piece of her uniform in her car, which was parked right outside the door and she desperately needed to get it. She pleaded with me to stand at the door and wait for her to let her back in. Now remember, we had been warned against doing so and that kept resounding in my head but . . . I also thought of my own unfortunate uniform mishap when I wore my roommates nylon stockings (of a very off color for me) and how uncomfortable and stupid I felt then. My heart when out to her --she needed her uniform.

But . . . What if we got caught? Was it my problem she forgot her uniform? I kind of told her as much but she kept begging me on and on, "Pleeeeeease!!! My car is right outside the door. I promise you I'll only be a second. I'll run right out and right back in. I won't tell anyone you let me in and if I get caught outside I won't tell them you agreed to let me back in. Oh please, I'll fail inspection if I don't have my uniform ready."

What's a weak girl like me to do? Deny such request? I mean, she did promise to run out and right back in. I look down the hallway seeing if anyone is in sight then I tell her, "Okay but you have to run out and right back in but if you get caught outside I'm outta here and I'm not waiting around." She thought that was fair enough and quickly exited the building. What seemed like HOURS was probably only minutes, if not seconds as I stood by the door waiting for her knock all the while keeping my eye down the hallway in case someone should come but also positioning myself to make it appear like I'm just going into the bathroom, not standing at the door waiting for someone.

Come on! COME ON! Hurry up.

Next thing I know, another female was walking down the hall towards us. It was one of my roommates but the one that was "sort-of" nice to me so I was hoping she'd be understanding.

She wasn't.

She walked up, pointed to the bathroom door and asked, "Are you waiting to go in?", not so much to inquire but more so to set me up for lying and failure.  I'm pretty sure she knew what I was up to.

Oh dear. What now? If I go into the bathroom and then the other lady comes back knocking, we're busted. If I tell her no she's going to know I'm up to something else. I tried to pretend I was just being nice and polite and I said, "Oh, why don't you go head --no problem." She wasn't buying it. She looked at the door then at me having put 2 and 2 together but before she could say anything there was the faintest knock at the door. I thought about pretending I had no idea what that was about but then I couldn't leave that other girl out there like that --I figured I was already busted anyway so ----- I opened the door. The girl was surprised to see someone else there. We all three stood there kind of frozen in time for a few seconds and then suddenly, my roommate indignantly spun around on her heel and with a mind-set of purpose, quickly marched herself back down the hall.

Oh yeah, she was totally going to go tell on us and as much as I hated to get kicked out of school, I was a bit relieved I'd not have to do that whole Platoon Sergeant thing.